Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is launched on a course of self-discovery in this modern version of the mythic voyage. In one of Woolf's wittiest, most satirical novels, we are introduced to Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The mismatched jumble of passengers on the ship provide Woolf with ample opportunity to satirize Edwardian life.

"I should suppose not," said Ridley significantly. "For a Divine he
was--remarkably free."

"The Pump in Neville's Row, for example?" enquired Mr. Pepper.

"Precisely," said Ambrose.

Each of the ladies, being after the fashion of their sex, highly trained
in promoting men's talk without listening to it, could think--about the
education of children, about the use of fog sirens in an opera--without
betraying herself. Only it struck Helen that Rachel was perhaps too
still for a hostess, and that she might have done something with her
hands.

"Perhaps--?" she said at length, upon which they rose and left, vaguely
to the surprise of the gentlemen, who had either thought them attentive
or had forgotten their presence.

"Ah, one could tell strange stories of the old days," they heard Ridley
say, as he sank into his chair again. Glancing back, at the doorway,
they saw Mr. Pepper as though he had suddenly loosened his clothes, and
had become a vivacious and malici